Commissioning as a Second Lieutenant

My parents and youngest sister (Emilie) came to see the commissioning ceremony at Ft. Benning, GA. It was wonderful to see them after months spent training!

Emilie and I at the Officer’s Formal, just a few days prior to graduation. She was gracious enough to be my date for the evening.

In a venue filled with many a gorgeous woman, there was not a single date more beautiful than mine!

October 31^st, OCS graduation finally arrived. It’s been a long, arduous journey, but I am now a Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Army! I feel quite a sense of relief to be finished with the initial training and moving on to the actual business of being an officer. I made some good friends along the way at Boot Camp and Officer Candidate School. Without both their support and the support of those of you cheering me on from home, I would no doubt never have made it to commissioning. Thank you to everyone who sent letters of encouragement and prayer!

Myself and some of the aforementioned friends who’ve been by my side since the beginning. Both James Kenah (center) and Jonathan Laansma (right) will be fine officers. The Army is lucky to have them!

Receiving the Distinguished Academic Graduate Award at the Commissioning Ceremony was a great honor. I’m grateful to have merely graduated, let alone chosen for such a distinction.

Now that training is over (for the time being) and I have some measure of free time, I can get back to working on my writing projects. I appreciate all of my readership who have patiently waited while I did everything except finish the sequels you’ve requested for so long.

Training…and Its Eventual Conclusion

Hello Everyone!

Wow. I know it’s been a long time (approximately four and a half months) since my last post, and here I am just now getting back in touch. The bad news here is that I’ve still got 4 – 5 weeks of Officer Candidate School remaining, so I can’t dive back into writing Ironheart‘s sequel just yet, but available free time is finally on the horizon. The good news is that I managed to graduate from Boot Camp in early August, and I’m well on my way to finishing OCS as well.

Classing up into Intermediate Phase at Officer Candidate School in Fort Benning, GA. Boy, was I ever happy to put on that blue ascot!

Squad STX training out in Fort Benning’s swamps and forests.

So there’s a brief update on what’s been going on. Thank you to everyone who’s been keeping up with me and sending mail throughout my training stages. Your letters have been a joy to read! I promise to get back on my current writing projects soon. You’ve all been so patient waiting for books that were forced to take a back seat when a chance for service took priority. I’ll keep pushing forward here, and, with a little luck, I’ll be back to writing about Primals, heroes, and villains soon!

 

A Random Dude’s Opinion on a New Year

Yes, yes, I know.  Yet another post by an obscure human being (who likely has no significant experience on which to be basing advice) about setting goals in a new year, blah, blah, blah…

I am well aware that now is the time of year in which every Bob or Jane with half a coherent thought is giving life advice.  But I’m a writer that writes what’s on his mind, so I’ll throw my two cents into the general pot.  Maybe we’ll come out with a fortune.

The fact of the matter is this: goals are important.  I don’t care if we’re nearing a new year and everyone’s saying it.  Doesn’t make it any less true.  Now is the time to be thinking about what you want out of life.  Not so you can forget by January 12th, but so you can carve it into your soul or your heart or whatever other internal organ or metaphysical entity you find appropriate.  Goals, people.  The conception and pursuit of what’s important to us makes us who we are.

So set ‘em!  Set those goals and keep them in mind.  Make a mission statement about what’s important to you and recite it daily.  Pull out that dusty ol’ bucket list and start ticking off your dreams.  My list is nearing the length of a novel (okay, that’s an exaggeration, but it is super long), and there’s no way I’ll ever complete it all in one lifetime.  Should that stop me from trying to attain as many of my dreams as possible?  No!  It just means I need to step up the pace to realize as many of them as I can with the time I’ve got!  It’s time to start knocking those suckers outta the park, and 2017 sounds like a good time to hit some grand slams.

The first step is to pick the goals you want to attain (or even just work toward, if they’re big ones that take years).  For example, here are some of my goals: I want to be a New York Times Bestselling author, serve my country, become an astronaut, earn a doctorate degree, and rule the world (just kidding on the last one…kind of).

I can’t do all of that in 2017!  I’ve got to be more selective.  So, first I select the goals I currently have the means to obtain or work toward.  Let’s use the NYT Bestselling Author goal.  This is one I’ve been pursuing for several years now, and in all likelihood, I still have years to go.  But I have the means to get closer to that goal, as long as I keep in mind what is important to me.  That’s the key; don’t let life interfere.  We can’t let the little things make us forget what we really want.  I want to change the world through my tales.  I want to rip and tear and break people inside with nothing but story, nothing but fiction and characters.  I want people to laugh and cry and shout and become inspired because they recognized something beautiful, tragic or stirring in what I create.  Being a NYT Bestseller is a representation of that, and as long as I keep that in mind, every day, every month, every year becomes a good time to reach for my goals.

Because, in the end, we all just want to change the world.  And if we work hard, I don’t think that’s too much to ask.

What about all of you?  Anybody have any goals they’d like to share?  What are you going to do to attain them?  Let me know!

Here’s wishing everyone a happy new year!